Madeleine Trials

Less than a week ago, I had never even tried a madeleine. I have now eaten some absurd number thanks to Jill’s birthday last week. Since she loves the things, I decided to make her a batch and give her the pan. It’s kind of hard to justify buying one-purpose kitchen things for yourself, isn’t it?

Having never made madeleines, I turned to Emma’s blog, Of Agates and Madeleines, because if someone has the very specific thing that you want to make in their blog title, that might be a good place to start. She had made these pretty pumpkin spice madeleines a couple months ago (hey, she’s a string player, too!) and since she used Dorie Greenspan’s recipe as a base, I decided to use that as mine as well.

You know me…I have this tendency to want to make a recipe different even if I’ve never tried it before. Jill really likes coffee and cardamom (and coffee with cardamom), so I came up with that flavor combo pretty quickly. The only problem is that I didn’t really know how much coffee (brewed? ground? instant?) or cardamom to use. The closest recipe I could find for coffee madeleines was for mocha ones and since it used a tablespoon of finely ground espresso, I figured I’d do the same, but increase it by half. Also I started out with a teaspoon of ground cardamom and then added an extra quarter of it after sampling the batter.

So this batch turned out as they should have (bump and all!), but I wasn’t convinced by the flavor. The coffee barely came through, so they mainly just tasted like cardamom-spiced madeleines. Jill liked them, but I wanted to try another batch of something a little less experimental…but still kind of different.

This time I took another Dorie Greenspan recipe and changed it up a little bit. Instead of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, I used all ginger, and then swapped the orange zest for lemon. I also came up with the brilliant idea (if I say so myself) of browning the butter because that can only improve things, right? I made these guys smaller too because standard-sized madeleines are pretty hefty.

Verdict? I think these were a little more successful, but just tasted like lemon madeleines. Couldn’t detect the ginger or brown butter which is sad, but that didn’t stop me from eating a billion of them.

Can I also say that I decreased the oven temperature by 100 degrees and baking time by 3 minutes?? I used my parents’ oven which possibly gets hotter than mine, but maybe it also had to do with the dark madeleine pan? Though now that I think of it, I didn’t decrease the oven temp with the first batch, just the baking time. Weird.

Any favorite madeleine recipes out there for Jill to make? I know she likes this one!

The only difference between us (that immediately comes to mind) is that I think madeleines are joyous tiny pieces of delicious, whereas they register as hefty in your mind:P I’ll have to make another batch soon and re-evaluate. For science, of course.

I have two tins, one dark (new and supposedly nonstick) and one straight up metal. The dark one seems to burn if I cook the two pans at the same time, even if I take it out a few minutes early. I haven’t perfected that one yet, but I’d prefer to just get another plain metal tin:)

They all look delicious! I still haven’t tasted a madeleine and a few months ago was *this* close to buying the pan…held it in my hands and everything. You are right…it’s hard to justify a one-use only item but I’m still tempted to get a pan and bake a batch :) If I do, hope they turn out as well as yours did. Happy belated birthday to Jill!

Julie – Ooo, you should make some! They’re pretty easy and very tasty.

Greg – Thanks!

Emma – Maybe hefty was the wrong word choice…I think I thought of them as large because I brought both batches to a rehearsal/concert and usually make smaller cookies for those and was wishing the pan was for mini mads. I bought your dark, nonstick was the same as what I used (Wilton)! It was the only kind where I bought it.

Paula – They’re like little cakes! I hope you do buy a pan someday soon! Maybe you just need to hint at it around friends and family and you’ll get one on your birthday. :)

Ha I love the line “Couldn’t detect the ginger or brown butter which is sad, but that didn’t stop me from eating a billion of them.”
Story of my life!! “these didn’t turn out as expected…mmmmm still good. must eat.

These look beautiful, I’ve never tasted them before but the flavor combos sound really interesting

if you ever want coffee flavored baked things, you have to use the instant stuff. it tastes gross as coffee for drinking, but works way better than the real thing when baking. Now I know what you meant when you said you had a whole car full of madeleines, and you weren’t kidding!

Stephanie – Seems hard to go wrong when butter, sugar, and flour is involved. :) Glad to find out there are quite a few others who have never had madeleines!

Meredith – Yeah, I really should have but have learned my lesson with the coffee. I even have a jar of instant espresso…next time! And yep, these definitely made up for the lack of madeleines in my life!